


everything you wanted but could not have

by negaprion



Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bipolar Rhys, Canon-Typical Violence, Friendship, Implied Rhys/Vaughn - Freeform, M/M, Post-Episode 5, bipolar character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-28 23:25:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6349888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/negaprion/pseuds/negaprion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Canon-divergent, post-episode 5)</p>
<p>"Rhys looked down at the ECHOeye in his palm. It had cracked a bit, the long cord caked with fluid and blood.  It no longer made him nauseous."</p>
<p>After the wreckage of Helios, Rhys, Fiona, Sasha, and Vaughn try to pick up the pieces of their former lives.  It doesn't take Rhys long to realize that there's no going home again.  And maybe that's okay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	everything you wanted but could not have

**Author's Note:**

> Wanted to write a quick fic focused on the caravan gang's relationships after the end of the game. I've headcanoned Rhys as bipolar for awhile (I'm bipolar), and I was excited to write him that way! Hope you enjoy!

He died that day, on the burning floor of a fallen king. Jack, he supposed, was dead too, destined to become a shadowy figure of fear. He was no Ozymandias. His mark would forever scar this world.

Rhys, though--Rhys was gone. The moment he’d been locked in the chair (that awful chair in cheerful yellow), the moment all of Helios had been shoved into his brain like drunk driver into a warehouse wall, he was dead. Whatever semblance of a personality he had was shattered then, merged helplessly with Handsome Jack. A ghost. This was otherworldly possession at its worst, all ones and zeroes and binary disaster, the AI masterpiece of a madman and a murderer.

So Rhys had died that day. He woke up awfully alone, and stayed that way for awhile, laying in the dirt and plaster. Shaken. It felt oddly relieving. That is, until the caked blood from his arm started to smell, iron and infected flesh. Sweet, and revolting. His eye ached. He couldn't see. He couldn't see. 

He picked himself up. In his pocket, the weight of ten million dollars and one petty, impulsive decision on a manic day hung heavy. 

He ignored it.

XXXX

“I missed you,” Sasha promised. She looked different now, older and beautiful and softer. He felt vindictive at first. How was she allowed to age while he stayed stagnant and blight, an ugly reminder of a big mistake?

“I missed you too,” he answered, and ran a hand over the groves of his new arm. They stood there a moment. An awkward hug. She might have been crying, or maybe laughing, or maybe just shifting, just as uncomfortable with this mix of emotions as him.

XXXXX

“I forgive you,” Fiona said softly, looking somewhere over his head. They stood in a hodge-podge room, ex-Hyperions buzzing around them, bee-like. Rhys could hardly focus. Everything was too bright, and Fiona stood there, a beacon of reluctant good. She was always better than him. A good heart, he thought, and a careful sort of passion. 

Compassion, he might call it. Devotion.

“Thank you.” he whispered back, his chest constricting and the familiar heavy weight of depression in his gut. It was all he could manage to say.

XXXXX

“I love you,” Vaughn shouted, louder and angrier than Rhys had ever heard. “Fuck, Rhys, I loved you and you didn't even notice! You’re a stupid, selfish idiot and you never even noticed!”

Rhys wanted to yell back. He wanted to punch the glass wall behind them, wanted to tear down this horrible place, a crude reminder of EVERYTHING YOU DID WRONG, and EVERYTHING YOU WANTED BUT COULD NOT HAVE. He wanted to scream and tear out his hair and drag dirt and blood over his painfully flashy new clothes. 

He wanted to reach out and touch Vaughn’s shoulder and he wanted to fall asleep in the crook of his arm, like they used to. 

“I'm sorry,” he said, instead. 

And then--

“I love you, too.”

Finally, Vaughn looked away. Shifted once, twice. Kneaded the palm of his hand.

He looked up again. 

“I thought you were dead. I thought-”

“I'm not,” he lied, haltingly. “I’m glad you’re okay.” 

Vaughn smiled back weakly. He reached up to push up his glasses, but ended up shaking his hand awkwardly, still unused to their not being there. 

“I’m okay, bro” he finally said, quieter this time. “I'm okay and you're okay and...and the girls are okay too, I guess. We’re fine. We’re safe.”

Rhys felt his whole heart contract. They stood there, a moment longer, not moving. Somewhere, a distant bang of a gun. Somewhere, a cheerful yell. It smelled like baked earth and bleach. It was the longest minute of Rhys’ life.

XXXXX

He had died in Handsome Jack’s office, just another forgotten failure of a cruel dictator, but he was born again on a Tuesday, the harsh Pandoran light sending swear down his forehead. Behind him, the camp Vaughn had built. The Children of Helios. The caravan, parked neatly between a dusty rock and the yellowed bones of an unidentified creature. 

Rhys looked down at the ECHOeye in his palm. It had cracked a bit, the long cord caked with fluid and blood. It no longer made him nauseous. 

“You ready?” Fiona had a hand on his shoulder, tight and reassuring. 

“Ready as I’ll ever be considering I'm about to crush my literal eyeball, which, I remind you, I fucking yanked out myself,” he answered. “That's pretty badass, man.” 

Sasha, somewhere behind him, snorted.

“Shut up, Rhys,” she said, but there was no heat behind it.

Besides him, Vaughn slipped his hand into Rhys’. He didn't say anything. . 

Rhys dropped the eye. Crushed it, slowly, under one shiny boot (he was, after all, a man of high taste). 

They stood there, the three of them, and watched the blue-glass shards whip away in the hot wind.

Then Fiona stretched, and yawned.

“I don't know about you nerds,” she said. “But I'm ready to get shitfaced at August’s place.”

“I’ll drive,” Sasha answered, slinging an arm around her sister’s shoulders. “Rhys, Vaughn, you guys in?”

Rhys looked down at Vaughn for a moment. His hand was still there, and it felt, to Rhys, better than any medication, any manic surge or depressive clarity.

“No thanks, Sash,” Vaughn answered, before he could. “I think we’ll stay here for awhile.”

“Yeah,” Rhys chimed in, with a crooked smile. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

 

END

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for the read! Have a GREAT day, no matter where you are.


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